


This Mark

by FridaysAt9



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Birthmarks, F/M, Fluff, Headcanon, Movie: The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), Sweet, The Unremarkable House (X-Files), The X-Files Revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26365330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridaysAt9/pseuds/FridaysAt9
Summary: Muses about Scully's beauty mark. It's always covered, but it is oddly visible in I Want to Believe. Moments when she chose to cover it and why she chose not to.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 3
Kudos: 70





	This Mark

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching the scratchy beard gif on repeat and realized an unmistakable beauty mark above Scully's lip. How had I never noticed this before? Then it started to drive me crazy. Why is the beauty mark there in I Want to Believe, but not in the original run OR the revival? Here's the headcanon I've come up with that makes sense to me. 
> 
> Thanks again to my betas admiralty and erosanderis! And thank you in advance for any reader feedback. It is always appreciated!

1\. It had always been there, though it was lighter at first. Her parents had asked the pediatrician about it when she was young, but he assured them that it was just a birthmark, a much softer sounding word than “mole,” and there was nothing to be concerned about. 

Still they kept their eye on it just in case. As she grew, it stayed about the same size but got a little darker, and a little more prominent over time. 

Her parents loved that little spot on her lip because she was their Dana and they loved each and every thing about her. She was a joy and they wouldn’t change a thing.

2\. People always asked her about it. What is that on your lip? Why do you have that spot? 

Her earliest memory of feeling that the small beauty mark above her lip was something unusual was when she was in kindergarten. She sat at a small table in the classroom with two boys and a girl. A boy named Jonathan sat to her left. He was cute, but she knew the girl at her table, Molly, wanted to marry him. 

One day Jonathan gave her a funny look, reached out and touched the spot. 

“What’s that?”

Dana was caught off guard and didn’t know the answer to his question, so she stayed quiet and looked down at the picture she was coloring.

That day when she got home she asked her mother what the spot on her face was. She had smiled at her and squatted down to her level, placing one finger on her birthmark with a soft touch. 

“Sweetie, it is a birthmark. A little spot of color that you were born with.”

When she saw the dissatisfied look on Dana’s face she added, “When God was finished making you, he put a period at the end of the sentence, right there, and he knew that you were perfect.”

Dana smiled, feeling special and loved.

From then on, if anyone asked, she would simply shrug and say, “I was born with it.” 

3\. When she got to junior high, Dana discovered makeup. She could hide her pimples, she could cover her childish freckles, and she could finally be rid of the spot above her lip. 

She was tired of it. She was tired of seeing it in the mirror. She was tired of people asking about it. She was tired of it being the thing that people’s eyes wandered to when she spoke to them. It was the most prominent feature on her face, more attention grabbing than her blue eyes, her nice teeth, or even the blotchy acne that she was prone to get. 

Her parents were sad to see her beauty mark covered, telling her that it was part of who she was, but they didn’t understand anything in her life, especially how she felt about her own body, so she continued to cover it.

Covering the spot with makeup became a part of her daily routine. She kept it covered almost all of the time. As she got better at doing her makeup, learning more from her college roommate, finding what worked and what didn’t. She settled on a waterproof foundation that kept her beauty mark covered in all situations. Only her facial scrub would make it reappear. 

She wasn’t ashamed of the spot anymore, like she had been when she was young, but she had been covering it for so long, it was part habit, part fear of what people would say if she suddenly left it uncovered. 

When she started medical school, it was a fresh start. No one knew her. She could be herself, show her freckles and her birthmark, but she decided to maintain the status quo and apply her foundation every morning.

By the time she started the FBI, she felt like a real adult. Her appearance was who she was. She was confident with her look and saw no reason for a change. 

4\. He had known her for fifteen years. He had seen her at her best, and at her worst. He had seen her covered in dirt, in decontamination showers, sick in the hospital. He’d pulled her from an alien pod and he had wiped blood from her face. 

They never respected each other’s personal space and had always stood closer together than was entirely necessary. 

It hadn’t taken him a long time to realize that she was covering something above her lip. The spot was the same pale ivory color as the rest of her flawless skin, but right there, above her lip, was a small, always present bump. 

They were close, of course, what with her being the only one who held his trust, but there was never a time he felt comfortable asking her about it. She kept it covered, even in the most unlikely situations, and that was her business. 

One night after their relationship changed to something more intimate, Mulder lay in bed with Scully, partially on top of her, one arm slung across her naked waist. Her eyes were closed as he studied her every feature, which he was sure she was aware of but for some reason allowed. 

When he could no longer keep his curiosity in check, he reached up and traced a finger across the small spot.

“Why do you cover it?”

Scully let out a drowsy, questioning hum, somewhere between awake and asleep. 

“This mark,” he clarified. “Why do you cover it?”

Scully was quiet at first, either thinking of an answer or waking herself up enough to speak. 

“I just always have,” she told him. “Someone once told me it was too big for my face.”

“I think it’s perfect.”

But after that night, she continued to hide the spot under her thick and resistant makeup. That is, until they moved to the unremarkable house. 

With so much time on the run, in disguise, anxious about being found, settling into the normalcy of a domestic life had softened her. He could tell she still cared about her appearance, using her facial creams and hair conditioners, but she wore less makeup. She grew out her hair and kept it a more subtle color. 

And with that softer Scully, the beauty mark emerged. During their years as a couple, Mulder had seen it in the shower, or after kissing off all the makeup that covered it, but in the unremarkable house, that beautiful spot came out to stay. 

Scully let the world see her fully now. She was feminine and powerful. The Scully who had been all sharp edges and intimidation was gone, replaced with a confident, self-assured woman who owned a room no matter how she chose to present herself. 

But when she was home, in the unremarkable house, she was Mulder’s. He would kiss that spot and tell her she was beautiful. Because she was, no matter what. 

5\. He rarely saw her after she left, but when he did, he could see the changes. She was transforming herself again. She had been a young FBI agent trying to earn respect. She had been a seasoned FBI agent commanding respect. She had been a woman with her partner, on the run, in their home, in their bed. She had returned to medicine, full of confidence. 

Now she was filling her life with style and poise. Age had come, but it continued to make her better. Her hair was perfect, her suits were tailored, her heels were thinner. Her skin was flawless and her beauty mark had gone back into hiding. Nothing on Dana Scully was out of place or without purpose. 

She was always strong, but she had many different versions of that strength, and this one, as all the others, suited her well. 

When Mulder saw her, meeting out on the street, for the first time in a while, she took his breath away. He couldn’t believe how beautiful she was, or that he had lost her. 

“I’m always happy to see you,” she had said, and he knew he was going to get her back. No matter what it took. 

They were back in their office, once again driving in rental cars, flying on planes, and sleeping in hotel rooms with adjoining doors. 

Their partnership came back like riding a bike. They found themselves and each other. 

Their relationship changed. They moved forward.

Mulder lay in bed, partially on top of Scully, one arm slung across her naked, round belly. Her eyes were closed as she dozed with the afternoon light shining through the windows of the bedroom in the unremarkable house. 

Mulder studied her every feature, the freckles sprinkled across her nose, her short red hair, the soft yet hard belly that held his child. The beauty mark above her lip, hiding under a layer of makeup. 

“Why do you cover it?” he asked, brushing his finger across the small bump. 

Scully took a deep breath, waking up from her light sleep.

“Why did you go back to covering it?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a tone of slight annoyance. Mulder stayed quiet, hoping that his silence would welcome her to share more. 

“I’ve had it covered most of my life,” she told him, opening her eyes to make contact with his. “The only times I didn’t were when I was a child…”

“And?”

“And when we were,” she paused, thinking of the right words. “When we lived here.”

Mulder nodded and traced the mark. 

“Neither of those things were true anymore, so it just didn’t feel like me.”

“And now?” he asked, searching her face. 

She smiled. Reading her in that moment, he gently rubbed the pad of his thumb along her lip, lightening the makeup, making the mark a little more visible. 

Scully took his hand, and kissed his thumb. “Now, I’m home.”


End file.
